Clothes dryers may employ a rotating perforated drum into which clothes are placed and tumbled within circulation of heated air to dry the clothes. The drum may be accessible for loading and removing clothing through an opening in the front of the dryer cabinet that may be covered by a hinged door when the dryer is in use. Typically, the door is held closed by a spring latch that retains the door closed against the light force of tumbling clothing but that may be readily opened at any time by a higher force applied to the dryer door handle by the user.
In some situations, it may be desirable to provide a latch that will maintain the door in the closed position under elevated temperatures that may melt plastic components. In this way, in the event of a fire in the interior of the dryer, the door will remain closed confining the fire to the interior.
One such latch is described in US patent application 2009/0260198, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference, which discloses a strike having a bulbous tip that may be received between plastic jaws of a spring clip. The plastic jaws are biased by a metallic U-shaped spring having arms that open by deflecting or pivoting about an axis generally perpendicular to the motion of the strike. The arms of a metallic spring pass through the plastic jaws so that should the plastic jaws melt, the ends of the arms are nevertheless close enough to the strike to grip and retain the strike when the plastic jaws are gone. The plastic jaws, during normal operation, reduce the friction of engagement and disengagement of the latch with the strike.
A U-shaped spring holding the plastic jaws is attached at its base to a metal U-shaped bracket surrounding the U-shaped spring having legs extending forward to attach to the housing of the dryer behind an opening through which the strike would make pass. This metal U-shaped bracket holds the U-shaped spring in proper position even in the event of a fire.